There’s still a quiet little war being fought that erupts once in a while and spills out into mainstream. It exists between the old school marketers and the new guys that have come on the scene as advocates of change.

The confrontation always seems to boil down to who owns social media: The Marketing Team or The PR Guru’s?

It’s a common thought that social media should be treated just like any other channel for marketing. It has established rules, a fundamental purpose as well as variable strengths and weaknesses. It’s also good for crafting and shaping opinions, so on the surface it seems like it would predominantly fall in the realm of PR.

To position it in that manner would be a mistake unfortunately. That move would cause it to lose authenticity and create restrictions on messaging. If PR has the rope, then what about others within the organization? What about other promotions and value that can be delivered? It’s not feasible for PR to manage the multitude of voices in an organization.

So that leaves us with Marketing. Social media is a mass of contact points, and each one impacts the organization/brand/individual in a different way. Because this, I fall back on the same reason I say no to PR. The organization is made up of more than just the Marketing group.

Social media does indeed need to be owned by someone, but it should be a team that is specifically designed to represent the various facets of the company and deliver messages that represent the organization as a whole – not just from a marketing and PR perspective.

Often the best teams are made up of people who carry knowledge and understanding of both marketing and PR along with the fundamental understanding of what it means to talk WITH consumers and not AT them. Those organizations that rely heavily on a marketing or PR department will find themselves mired in the traditional corporate speak and ill-delivery of messages that never quite fall on the consumers the right way.

Not to say that all marketing and PR departments get it wrong. Certainly those that have restructured and changed their way of thinking to a more modern position on social media and customer engagement actually get it. They deliver their messages quite well more often than not. It’s those still living under the old rules of marketing and PR that cause businesses to struggle the most.

If any organization wants to remain ahead of the pack with social media marketing, there will need to be a hybrid team – and change is necessary.

By general standards it appears everything was handled properly.  You even did everything the “experts” and agencies told you to.  Keywords, blog posts, videos, direct marketing.  Still, you gain no traction.  You’re not even seeing gravity within your social media marketing where you thought for certain you’d gain steam among your followers.

Here are 10 reasons where you likely went wrong.

1. Your actual message is full of “I” and “me” instead of anything relating to “you” (you know..the customer)

2. You neglected to communicate the “Why” to the people you’re targeting

3. Your copy isn’t at all focused on the “What”

4. Further investigation reveals that there is little to no information on the “How”

5. …or the “What if”  is in.. “what if I buy it” or “what if I don’t”

6. You’re spending a lot of time positioning yourself as a thought leader, droning on about yourexpertise instead of actually defining a clear solution to a problem that the customer is having.

7. You’re basing your marketing off assumptions about your targeted buyers, often because you’ve sold some stuff before and since you’ve been doing it for so long you just know your experience puts you in the right place.  Probably a good idea to replace that attitude with hard fact gathering and listening.

8. You didn’t spend enough time testing your products and services before the launch - or you did no testing at all

9. For you, social media and your email are like a firehose.  Information goes one way and it goes that way fast.  It needs to be two-way to spark conversation.

10. You lack anything that resembles compassion and empathy for your target audience because you’re worried more about making money than solving their problems - and it shows.

You have to find as many ways as possible to narrow your message so that it speaks to each individual within your target audience.  You cannot be all things to all people, and you cannot survive the marketing game if your copy is too impersonal.  Especially not in a world where we’re driven by personal connections in social media.

Business owners breaking into the world of social media marketing and content marketing find a bit of a quandary when they’re trying to build out a strategy. Not only do they have to develop a number of goals but they have to settle on tactics, educate themselves, do research, define the buyer, understand the competition and determine the type of content to develop.

Then there’s that pressing question – how often do they develop the content?

With just a bit of research into content marketing through social media an individual or organization can come to understand the importance of the press release, articles, blogs, etc but you don’t often see information on how often you should send that content out.

A lot of business owners and marketers start worrying about how much is too much – and for that matter how much is too little. When you start thinking about content marketing for SEO purposes, you want to filter out enough content in your campaign to have a significant impact on your rank in the SERPs. You also want to hit that mark without coming off as spammy in any way.

Unfortunately, there really is no “one size fits all” answer to how much you should send out content.

Press releases used to be saved until the company had a pile of useful info and they 1 or several releases would be sent at a time. Now, businesses submit press releases for anything they perceive to be relevant to their target market. Does that means it’s always relevant? Probably not, but since most businesses typically have some kind of information or news to share relevant to their consumers at least 2-4 times a month, you can safely bet that putting out less than 5 press releases per month will gain you some organic listings without the fear of spam – as long as you’re not stuffing keywords into your press releases.

Articles – the red light district of link building. If you’ve got cheap content with no real value I’m going to tell you to stop submitting it and don’t use it at all. Most PLR does nothing but waste space and someone landing in your sales funnel that’s forced to read trash content with no clear, defining message and zero value won’t stay in that sales funnel for long. However, if you can produce quality content for your marketing campaign then pushing 1 or 2 articles a day would be beneficial.

If you do at least 1 article per day, you can gain a lot of ground in the SERPs over the course of your campaign. Is it necessary to do more? Not really, unless you want to run an aggressive campaign. Just be aware that an accumulation of links that occurs too quickly could create issues with the search engine algorithm, even if they’re organic.

Let’s not forget the almighty power of the blog. I’m sure many of us know people who only blog once a week, or even once every other week. Some blog several times a week like I do, and others blog every single day. It’s really a matter of personal preference. The more you post, the more aggressive your content marketing will be and the faster you’ll develop a presence within the web – contributing overall to your link profile and rank within the SERPs among other things.

Regardless of how much you choose to do something, always remember to create a refined strategy with your choices. If you decide to post to your blog 3 times a week then stick to the same days and do it consistently. That same advice goes for articles and press releases. Create a consistent routine.

When you generate a schedule for yourself, it’s harder to walk away from it or set it to the wayside in order to get other things. If you keep putting off your content marketing, the next thing you know two weeks have gone by and you’ve done nothing.

Toy with your schedule enough and you’ll find a strategy that not only works for you but one that produces results as well.

When you define what a pearl is, you have to take into account that there are very real pearls and very fake ones.  The finest quality natural pearls are extremely rare and require deep mining of the ocean to find those that have the most value.  Those with the highest quality are valued for their beauty, and have been so for centuries.  That’s why the word pearl is associated with something that is extremely rare, intrinsically valuable and very fine.

Cultured pearls make up the majority of what is traded in the market but you can still find valuable pearls within the wild ocean.  To supplement the industry and in an effort to turn profit, plenty of imitation pearls also flood the market.  Despite their attempts to replicate beauty, fake pearls are often easy to identify and stand out against the real thing like an ugly stepsister.

Take with that how we view social media, and consider the concept of “pearls of wisdom”.  When we peruse through conversations and  social media marketing attempts we can see that the most valuable conversations do indeed still occur in the expansive ocean of the web - but they’re very rare. It’s these rare conversation that actually grant an intuitive comprehension of solutions along with the ability to apply the necessary process to meet that solution.

Conversations that fall into the realm of “fake pearls of wisdom” are a bit easier to spot and can be quickly distinguished from the rest.  We see those more often with content marketing throughout social media that is hammered and spammed with poor quality PLR and recycled mish-mash

With social media marketing, business sometimes neglect the true transparency of their presence and conversations.  Without any clear understanding of what quality is, they move forward using old marketing tactics and gimmicks to create a social media stir.  The result is that people quickly pick them apart from the bunch as being “fake”.  What’s worse is the group that take an advertorial standpoint with social media and start pushing messages to their followers that add absolutely zero value to the fold.  The content does not lend itself to a solution, and lacks any real “wisdom”.

People migrate to, thrive on and demand true pearls.  At the same time, there’s a certain expectation that they are indeed hard to find.  That’s one of the reasons why those conversations provide so much value, because of their rarity.  The only way to make a bee line and connect with the user who is seeking your pearls of wisdom, and effectively drive the right message, is to view social media in the proper light.  You must be marketing on a human network where you can be caught seeking wisdom (both receiving and delivering).  If you’re anything but, such as striving for an integrated network of leads as you power efforts to gain attention and ad click, then people with disperse and gather elsewhere.

Social media marketing is a monstrous construct, like the witches golem.  Among the folds and debris that are constantly added to, you can find the pearls of wisdom that come from a very select and small crowd of people.  They provide information and authority that can last forever.

The rest?  Well, all those other forced results are temporary.

It’s amazing how advancements in technology can bring us back still in a full circle to remember out origins. Now, someone has taken the age old concept of bartering for goods and services and combined it with social media marketing.

The Tweet now has new value.

The concept, “Pay with a Tweet”, was cofounded by two men, Leif Abraham and Christian Behrendt who believe “In general, all content creators and marketers want to create buzz for themselves, their brand, product or service. [Pay with a Tweet] is perfect to create a quick buzz around you, your service and your products.”

Launched earlier this month, the Pay with a Tweet system allows consumers to pay for items such a retail stock or downloadable goods (music, downloaded paper) by exchanging the item for a Twitter message. The whole concept uses the power of the word of mouth marketing in order to generate buzz for a specific item or business in order to promote the brand. It’s actually quite brilliant in a way, because they’re leveraging something that already exists by using something that people are already doing.

The co-founders foresee a platform where business owners can sell and market their products to consumers around the world that are willing to Tweet about the products. Retailers and site owners can have a button embedded within their site or cart system that gives the message to consumers on what to tweet with an embedded non-editable link. Their exact brand message then goes out over the Twitter network. Users can still add their own additional comments to the message being sent.

While it’s a new system, it seems to have a fair amount of potential. I’m sure there will be plenty of people murmuring about the effectiveness of bribing people for Tweets but as content marketers, what else are we doing if not bribing people with words and information?

Is there any difference between a beneficial piece of content and a free razor? What do you think?

It’s not like Geico.

Granted I’m not talking about the physiology of the human body.  We’re not talking about acid-base as it related to pH balance.  We’re not mixing rocket fuel.  This is easy stuff.  You can get by posting to your Facebook profile without a psych major.  You can probably write a 550 word blog post rant about people who cut across the Walmart parking lot doing 40mph instead of using the lanes (I loathe that…) and manage it without a literature degree.

You obviously don’t need a production team to post a video of a customer who won’t stop bragging about you.

There’s that remote possibility that you’re the type of person who stares at a blank sheet of paper or the blinking cursor and wonders if you may be more productive had you not done…all those things in high school you did.  Maybe you just hate writing, or perhaps there’s a part of you that thinks dancing in front of a camera for YouTube sounds like something you just.. can’t bring yourself to do.

Maybe both.

The fact is, social media is about engagement and content, and because content drives the web you’re pretty much forced to do one or the other.  Granted theirs audio, but you can’t really run an “audio” campaign.  You’ve got to supplement it with more.  From a business standpoint, social media seems like the insurmountable barrier for a lot of business owners who have this mindset.

Personally, I think that sucks.  And I say that coming from a position of total empathy.

The fact is, there are a lot of business owners that are concerned about the amount of time they can put into social media and whether or not they’re even capable of doing it themselves.  Keep in mind my self-employed friends, you do have the opportunity to have someone else handle and maintain your web presence.

So what are you overall options as a business owner?

You - Yeah we pretty much ruled that out.  That one is skunked.  It’s the logical choice but there is obviously something holding you back whether it’s skill, time, fear, stubbornness, etc.  So lets just move right along.

An Employee -  The next logical choice but you have to consider a few things.  The time you need to allot for that employee to manage the web presence.  Do they have the knowledge of social media?  Are they skilled and talented enough to create the content you need?  Can they act in an unbiased manner instead of lashing out irrationally with responses like “I dO nOt hAvE A ComFortaBle LiFe!” on your Facebook wall?  Some companies have employees that make the cut, many simply don’t.

Random Family - As good as their intentions usually are, we all know from many years of broken deals, heartache and horse-trading that getting family involved in business just… well I’ll just say that the drawbacks are not only numerous, but painful to think about.  The end result is usually bad.  Not like “oooooh no I got a flat tire” bad.  More like “four horsemen of the apocalypse” bad.

Professional Agency/Freelance/Outside Contractor - If you’ve got the budget for this, it’s a great option.  There are a lot of companies that will completely monitor your reputation online.  They’ll handle all of your social media accounts, write content and market with that content, etc.  Budget for businesses is usually the issue but the return with social media marketing is often much higher over time than what gets invested.

Ultimately, you have to make a smart decision about what you’re going to do.  It may seem OK to just put a warm body in the seat but as we know from running a business for years, you can’t just hire anyone.

I admit it can be a bit of a catch22.  What do you think?  If you’re stuck between worry and budget, what’s the best choice if there’s legitimate concern on both sides?

To every small business owner, I’d like to check your pulse. I want to know if you’re still in the game, if there’s still life left in you.

Mainly because I’m concerned with the way marketing is changing. What once was, is no more and cannot be handled as such.

I regularly have discussions with small business owners because it’s a market I consider to be my playground. It’s my territory, and working with small business owners is where I thrive. I commonly run into businesses that have little to no presence on the web with no plans to change that. Often, one of the first questions I ask is why the business had adopted the strategy that they use. I often get a number of things noted to me in return that play a part in their online presence (or lack thereof):

1. Their demographic doesn’t involve young kids and teenagers or stay-at-home parents who putz around on Facebook. They want people who have additional income to spend, and in their eyes those people don’t spend their day lounging online

2. They have success with their direct mail campaigns (flyers, magnets, post cards, letters) that they typically design themselves. I marvel at the instability of the business and wonder what their definition of “success” is. Mine seems to be quite different

3. They often have a website that was designed by a friend, family member, by themselves or it was designed by a local “designer” with an at home “web design” business. The sites tend to leave a lot to be desired, aren’t optimized in any form and more often than not I’m told that they don’t change or update it because they either can’t afford to do so or they don’t want to hurt the feelings of the person who designed it.

4. For those that performed some measure of research and contacted companies for marketing, they were frustrated that they could not receive quantifiable returns on the investment. They want to be told that business will increase by X amount of dollars over a specific period and it’s something that couldn’t be substantiated. Because of that, they backed out.

5. They just don’t understand “it”. Because they don’t understand social media marketing and location based marketing online so they simply do not participate or attempt to do so. It’s not for them.

Without being crass or lacking in compassion, I have to be blunt. These business owners are likely going to sink and go out of business. Cash flow will continue to be choked off by the raging social media marketing campaigns of competitors and the customer base will continue to shrink each day.

To answer the shrinkage and forced price reductions to get people in the door they turn to the same methods – direct mail, bigger yellow page ads, radio spots. They’re attempting to run their business in the new millennium, in 2010, like it’s still 1983.

This is where my compassion presses me forward because situations like this frustrate me. It is the actions of the business owner that brought them to this point. Their lack of social media marketing and online presence is causing them to lose their customer base. It has less to do with the economy than many people think.

The world of online marketing is a new and mystifying place to someone who doesn’t understand the nature of the creature but business owners have to stop turning a blind eye to the things they don’t understand. They should instead be seen as opportunities to break ground and put a positive change into affect. For those companies willing to surge forward and discover how social media marketing can aid their business, they gain traction from competition that is paralyzed with the fear of the unknown. Because of the lack of action among their competitors, they’re able to dominate the market share and have growth even in a stale economy.

Where do you see yourself and your small business in 2010? Where do you want to see yourself by 2011?

Are you still hanging on?

It’s a concept that has become ever popular as social media has grown and expanded around the world.  There was a time where to become an influencer it meant direct and constant involvement, building, managing and a lot of time spent “positioning”.  Those people who were influencers had profound impacts on their market and their position was rarely contested (save for those of opposing markets)

Now we’ve moved (and continue to press into) an age of complete transparency and openness.  Between free publishing tools and “like” buttons, the concept of the influencer may be losing it’s value or credibility.

When we participate in a world laden with cheap like buttons and the ease of obtaining a click or sharing information, how much value can be placed on someone or something just because a throng of people gave a vote of confidence or thumbs up?  What defined an influencer then is certainly different from what defines one now.

At least I hope so - I pray that it will be about more than just click-through’s.

I’m left wondering how influence stands in the world we’re in now.  If person A can get person B to click on a link, does that mean that person A has influence?  If so, to what scale?  I’m of the mind that I think it’s important to consider a certain point;  Just because someone has the ability to influence or manipulate a given situation to obtain a desired outcome it doesn’t necessarily mean that person is influential or that they carry influence on a grander scale.

Once upon a time, before AOL sucked the world into it’s addictive black hole, actually moving a person into action was likely something that could grant someone the position of being influential.  Now, in a world where anyone can get anyone else to perform an action through retweets, likes, updates, SMS and more then I’m left to wonder what kind of metrics to look for that prove real influence.  Perhaps it’s not in how many clicks you can gather but if you can create something that disseminates beyond that first group. If you can engage your immediate network to begin reaching out into more distant degrees of separate to spread the message and pass the influence along - getting others beyond them to take action.

It’s possible that we’ve stepped through a point of evolution, into a new age, where there is no longer one great channel to cross in order to reach our goal and destination.  We may not be able to focus on a single tipping point much longer but instead our influence may have to be measured in the overall reach.

In a world where everyone seems capable of having influence, it’s more like an intricate network of dominoes.  Set em up - and if you set things up properly you can watch the dominoes continue to fall, reaching out to touch the next in line, passing the momentum forward.

This is where a lot of people get hung up, but honestly blogging isn’t about the writing. Success can be found in the planning. Without proper planning, you’re bound to have days where you stare in annoyance at a blinking cursor trying to figure out what to write about.

Planning doesn’t need to be anything extravagant, as even a touch of strategizing can eliminate those headaches and frustrating days.

While it works for a lot of people, it’s not productive to sit down and write your blog post the day it’s “due”. That doesn’t lend itself to a lot of research time, and as far as blog marketing goes it can chew up a fair amount of your other free time that you could be devoting to other projects.

To streamline the entire process, sit down and create an editorial calendar where you plan the topics you’re going to produce. Blog marketing can be made extremely simple when you approach it in this manner. This type of calendar will virtually eliminate the days where you sit banging your head on the desk over content blocks.

Not to say that you won’t ever run into content blocks while you’re working on your blog marketing. This process just makes it easier to establish content in advance. When you can create a pool of content around a content calendar, you free up time in the long run by setting up scheduled posts using blog content that you’ve already created and plugged in.

So what do you do if you hit those “I still don’t know what to write about” barriers?

You’ve got a few different options to play with

Borrow From Others

Check out the blogs that cover similar topics to your niche, or even something parallel but not quite similar. Just by reviewing the topics of others you may find an idea that triggers a great post for you blog marketing that would be beneficial to your readers.

You can also “repurpose” the content of others. Before you plunge at me with sharp objects for suggesting plagiarism, I’m not. Don’t steal content. It’s just unethical. What I’m suggesting is different. If you find a post by someone that strikes a chord with you then consider the idea and run with it. Either create a reaction post, or use the context of their post to write a similar piece – just do it better. For every point, there are varying perspectives.

Another blogger is likely only covering one perspective of a topic leaving opportunity for you to discuss it at as well in a similar light. You can even add meat to your own new post by referencing the other author.

Have A Brainstorm Session

Take the time to start ticking off a list relating to what you do, the areas your business covers, services and products, problems that people have, the solutions that you provide, how these things interact, etc. By generating a list of content you’ll turn up some writing topics as you brainstorm.

You might even feel the need to stick to more advanced information but keep in mind that not everyone who finds you from your blog marketing is going to have a firm grasp of the info you provide. This makes it entirely acceptable to go back to basics and cover general topics from time to time – just like this blog post. While you’re brainstorming, look for subjects that would be useful to someone new that is exploring your niche.

Collaborate With Another

If you’re completely starved for ideas ahead of time, then turn to some of the people you network with who understand your market. It might be a friend, coworker or even someone that runs a blog similar to yours. Speak with them and ask them to bounce ideas back and forth with you. After a few short conversations you’ll more than likely have some solid info for a post.

The other option is to Co-author a post, where multiple individuals have a discussion that is shared. This is often done in audio format now but it can be done with text in a blog post like a written interview style.

Turn On The Boob Tube

Catch some news or something on the history channel, science or discovery channels, etc. If you can find something that relates to your market then that’s even better. If you’re watching with a blog in mind then you’ll be stripping down episodes and the events within to try to find something post worthy as a reference point.

If nothing comes to mind, at least you got a nice break sitting on your butt watching something educational.

Blog marketing doesn’t need to be a massively trying ordeal or even anything overly technical. It’s not a mammoth undertaking, it just takes a little devotion and creativity. Just remember that you’re not writing a thesis, and it’s not alwaysnecessary to think big or be a revolutionary.

You just need to be conversational and useful.

Facebook seems to have a little mystique about it, especially with all the options – it can be difficult to figure out how to incorporate it into a social media marketing campaign. To help move things along, here are three ways Facebook is a viable choice over other social media networks for marketing.

#1: Facebook Is About Communities

We hear people talk about building communities a lot but so few companies actually know where to go and what to do in order to accomplish this. Facebook makes it easy to develop communities within your accounts and setup group discussions.

Twitter is primarily for 1 on 1 or 1 to Everyone discussion. It’s not easy to track and interact with a handful of people at once, and it’s hard to see how other people reacted to a specific post.

Facebook is growing for a reason and it’s one of the largest networks, now boasting over 500 million active users. They hit that mark for a reason – Facebook makes it easy to interact and connect with people on a very human level whether that’s 1 on 1 or in a group.

Because people can see what others are saying, the potential for dialogue is high – it’s like blog comments all hopped up on steroids. When people are driven to respond and interact with a business through discussions then you’re building a community.

#2: Facebook Gets A Lot Of Traffic… A Lot

One of the reasons Facebook is so popular is because it hits on underlying desires. This is the kind of stuff we talk about being pertinent in content production (especially titles and headlines) because you want to connect with people.

Facebook does just that with notifications about all the various tidbits of activity going on from e-mails about adds and comments to the red flag digits that something has changed or occurred while you were away. It’s difficult for most people to avoid these cues, and if you’re anything like me then you probably check your Facebook as often as you check your e-mail.

Facebook has this advantage over Twitter because Twitter lacks this draw and widespread functionality. While I’m certainly not here to bash Twitter, I have to give props where props are due.

When you figure that people are on Facebook more often than not, it gives ample opportunity to actively connect and engage people around your brand. Your customers, friends and fans are already there a LOT. Take advantage of that.

#3: Facebook Connects You Outside Of Facebook

I’ve always felt this was a great idea and a brilliant move. Clicking that like button on a page or article outside of Facebook leaves your footprint. The next time a friend hits that page, they’ll see your name there.

There’s power behind this because if someone truly respects you and your opinion and they see that you liked something, they may feel that extra time can be spent there – it’s got to be worth a look, right?

Of course the Like Box widget works in a similar manner. It will display the images of people you know, making it more likely that you too will become a fan.

So What’s The Advantage For Businesses?

Think about it – with over 500 million active users on the Facebook network, there’s a good chance that a majority of your customers are on Facebook as opposed to other networks.

Couple that with the fact that businesses are just now figuring out how to use Facebook. This is a golden opportunity to become an Early Mover and connect with customers and fans over competition that hasn’t even arrived on scene yet.

Comcast and Ford jumped the train early and got a big head start. That’s the kind of head start you want as a business doing social media marketing.

The process isn’t a launch where you countdown and then suddenly you’re there and you’re live. It’s an investment, like buying property in a major downtown metropolis before any other businesses move in. You have the pick of the best spots. Everything you do will garner more attention because there is less competition.

Waiting seems kind of silly at this point, doesn’t it?

User experience, information architecture and the actual site content.

You look at those things and you start to think about what you want to accomplish with the traffic and visitors you’re getting on your pages. That can be broken down into three different things: Purchase, Persuasion and Participation

The Process Of Purchasing

The obvious goal of any business online is sales conversion through a site, especially when you’re talking about e-commerce. From the end user perspective, it’s not that simple. You want them to buy as soon as they get there; they’re not even certain they’re going to buy from you at all and in fact they might not have even considered making a purchase.

Purchasing is a process and in order to get that commitment you have to funnel users toward that end. In order to make that funnel work, it needs to be lined with relevant content that will provide value to them in each step of the sales process. Leave gaps, and the customer will get tossed out of the sales funnel

Draw Them In With Persuasion

While in many cases we want to sell something (as often as possible, right?) sometimes the goal we have in mind isn’t necessarily to push traffic through a sales funnel. Often, our goal is to convince the user of a specific opinion, point of view or message. We want to establish some trust and rapport that makes the message believable. This is where we begin defining our brand identity and encourage the user to see things from the perspective of the company – that we can contribute to them something valuable and that we’re more than just a long list of products and services.

Participation Comes From Engagement

The internet represents an exodus away from mainstream media models where a small number of people control what an audience sees. For the web, it’s really not an audience of viewers or listeners it’s an audience of users. The fact that we refer to them as such shows just how interactive the medium is, and the position that business owners should take with their sites and the content within. With the interactivity of the web, we can clearly see that user-generated content and user interaction contribute a great deal to the overall retention of visitors to a site (and their subsequent engagement).

If these three points can be fused together a business owner will begin to see how they form a beneficial, symbiotic relationship with one another. More can be achieved with the whole rather than thinking on the level of “or” and settling only with one of the above points as a goal in itself. Hitting on all of these will help generate a site that transforms into a very dynamic and engaging playing field for visitors.

What you end up with is a multi-dimensional site rather than a flat, single-dimension static page. You’ll be providing users with interactive options that will immerse them in the experience that will help not only convert them to a consumer by the end of the sales funnel but will also effectively brand them for future sales and evangelism.

It’s funny how… when you own a blog you start getting pitches simply because you have a blog that people read. After a while, you start to get a real sense for who the people are that are making the pitches. Some people just have that “Celebrity” squeal going, they want to connect with you just to connect with you. Others want to connect with you because they want something of value or feel like they can learn something more.

You certainly don’t need to be a PR or media hound in order to make the contact but it helps if you’re a complete twink within your contact or pitch. There’s a good chance your pitch can go awry if you’re letting those celebrity twinkles get in the way of your sight while making a pitch.

Here’s some ways you can tell that you’re letting your excitement and anxiousness get away from you:

1) You’re opening has the appeal of leftover meatloaf. Yes, you’re likely an important individual however are you so important that you can’t put effort into making it at least look like you know who the blogger is? Did you realize you spelled their name wrong? Such a small thing can have a large impact.

2) Your pitch covers how amazing the author, company or product is, that it’s the best thing published in this marked and it can’t be topped – but did you consider that the blogger you’re pitching to is likely in the same market and may be as “awesome” if not more so than whatever it is you’re pitching. Afterall, you came to them for a feature spot.

3) The whole “black sheep” family member thing gets old as well. You get what you want and you disappear… at least until you need something again. If you’ve yet to grasp the concept that social media is about relationship (give and take) then you won’t have a round two.

4) Incessant follow ups that add no value to the original email do nothing to inspire interest, especially considering that a first impression can only be made once it’s probably best to just let it go. Unless you can expand upon your first contact with something really enticing, an email that says something like “since you haven’t written about this yet, any interest in this?” won’t likely work well either.

5) Writing your emails with crayon, or having them look like your 5 year old did it, won’t win you any awards – unless you’re pitching to a Disney blogger that’s dyslexic. Perhaps then your typo’s, grammar and overall style will make more sense.

6) You’re unable or unwilling to initiate or engage conversation makes follow up painful, and it’s a prime reason to have a pitch…pitched. Again, social media is about relationships and conversation. Join or leave.

7) You (somehow) manage to pull off a clever subject for your email but the train wreck immediately begins with the opening paragraph. There are successful marketers within social media that can make the reader hang on every detail, post, word, comma, sliver of info, etc. Do that.

Somehow neglecting to say Thank You for the response, the attention, the converstion, whatever you got. Lack of gratitude - Probably a good method for ending a pitch.

9) Your pitch isn’t relevant. What good does it do to pitch something like a 30 day lean-meat protein challenge to a vegan blogger? That’s a stretch, but it happens.

10) Your pitch is dishonest. Not a good idea, since the blogger in question is likely going to do plenty of research if they DO choose to write for you. Turning up contradictory information and lies is a quick way for a blogger to drop you and walk away.

Remember that when you’re writing a pitch, something from this list will likely apply to you but the primary thing to consider is that a good product, service, author, etc should be able to stand on its own. Your contact or pitch is not to launch it, merely to support its own launch efforts.

Social media marketing tends to be market dependent, which means every strategy is going to be unique to the individual business or marketer. Because of the way social media is changing, every business is going to use it in “similarly different” ways. Your customers are also going to use the same channels to communicate both with you and about it.

This is why it’s important to have a strategy in place for reputation management. There are a number of review sites that fall into the realm of social media marketing and they need to be incorporated into your every day strategy and routine.

These sites can have a positive impact on your SEO and get you a lot of visibility within the SERPs but the last thing you want people to see first is a rant from a disgruntled customer about how you and all of your products are filth. This happens a lot, more than most business owners can admit because they either don’t want to or they’re not looking into social media.

When you get a bad review it’s important to either respond to it or push it off the page – preferably both if you have the stones for it.

A response to a review needs to be carefully handled and be completely objective. You can do some serious damage to your business and your branding by taking customer reactions personally and responding inappropriately.

Try some of these tips to help you keep a cool head when responding to reviews during your social media marketing campaigns.

Be Understanding

Even if the person you’re dealing with is producing an unrelenting rant you need to remain polite and civil – at all costs. The reviews and responses tend to be made when people are at the peak of their frustration and anger. If you respond appropriately, you can bring them back from the end and toward resolution. This can bring the matter to a quick close, and the public may even develop some additional respect for you in the way you handle reviews.

Address The Issue

It does you no good to argue semantics or points that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. Actually you shouldn’t argue at all. It’s not a debate. If a customer has a complaint about a specific topic, then address what is broken (or what they perceive to be broken) and then reply. Don’t bother replying before hand, as that can give onlookers and the customer the impression that you’re more concerned about pleasing them and saving face than actually fixing the issue.

Personalize It

Not to contradict what was already said about keeping things from getting personal, but you should make it personal for the customer. Give them something with meaning to rectify the issue. Don’t just hand out the same 10% off coupon that everyone gets. Personalize it, and make them feel as if you value them.

Follow Through

This basically comes to doing what you say you’re going to do. If you told someone that you would contact them then you sure as hell should contact them. Keep it in the front of your mind that if someone took the time to post a negative review they probably won’t have an issue following up on their side if you happen to muck things up.

Expect The Expected

There will be a time when you find customers that just cannot be pleased. They are not happy with any solution being offered and they simply want your head on a pole. While duct tape and dynamite can be extremely tempting, have a more thorough plan to deal with the bad customer that can’t be satisfied.

We don’t think about issues such as negative reviews until they’re staring us in the face. Taking the time to plan ahead and generate a reputation management strategy is one of those deciding factors: Are you a proactive gladiator or a reactive twit?

Regardless of the industry in which your personal brand originates, an increased awareness of social media is exceedingly important. Taking the time to build that brand within social media and take measures to foster its growth are equally important.

Here are some simple things you can do as a business owner or marketer to use social media for brand establishment, reinforcement and growth.

Be Approachable & Be Acceptable

I have, on more than one occasion, been privy to candid remarks and over-the-top opinions from people that I network with in social media as well as “randoms” I stumble across. I’m not sure if it’s the anonymity that some people feel while surfing the web or that some just feel untouchable behind their computer screens but this is no way for someone to brand themselves. People need to take engagement on the web as seriously as they take it in person.

Building a brand means presenting your best side regardless of the scenario because it’s in trying moments that people remember businesses and the individuals that run them. You will, without a doubt, find people that you do not like to do business with as well. Be accepting of those people just as much as your preferred customer and you’ll find that you generate more buzz by being amiable than sour.

Take Opportunities To Share

This is what social media marketing is all about. When you share what you know and what you’re experienced with you can brand yourself as an expert in your field. You become a credible source of helpful or entertaining information. People connect with others to learn and exchange as well as network with like minded folks. When you supply any kind of content that has a perceived value then people developed a greater appreciation for who you are and they’re likely to not only remember you but they’ll stick around for a while to see what else you’ve got.

Learn To Be Authentic

People used to go ape spit over the politic baby kissing during elections. They loved it, they thought it deserved gold stars for class. People aren’t so easy to please anymore, and transparency is required in order to build a lot of credibility. People are aware of general dealings and they watch the way businesses work and engage the public through social media. They know the difference between a company making slow progress to interact with followers and a company performing a fast swoop to scrape up thousands of followers to play the numbers game.

Take a genuine approach to building your brand and people will show appreciation for your consideration. When all is said and done, you simply need to say what you mean and mean what you say and if you say you’re going to do something then follow through.

Be Original & Be Focused

Because you can’t be everything to everyone. Other businesses have already tried and failed. Your niche market does not encompass the world so stop trying so hard. It’s impossible for any of us to win over everyone. You have to find your niche and stick to it. Remember that the guy chasing two rabbits ends up losing them both.

In order to build a brand properly, you have to know who you’re marketing to through the use of buyer personas. If you have a persona established for every market and you’re trying to market to everyone then it would be impossible for you to deliver messages with substance. Your brand should connect with the right people for your product through the proper social media channels.

Use Customers For Credibility

Social media provides ample opportunity for grabbing feedback on your brand from… everyone involved. When you can share reviews and testimonials, you’re demonstrating integrity and building credibility. More so when you embrace negative reviews and work within social media to correct those issues. This speaks directly to maintaining transparency as well. Negative reviews aside, positive feedback of any nature can manifest respect and trust from your target market.

Keep in mind that regardless of the actions you take, you don’t necessary have complete control over your brand. The groundswell is far too strong, and people have more authority online than they’ve ever had as a mass in history. With that said, these tips can help you embrace the market in which you operate to influence brand development.

I’m a mad scientist when it comes to playing with social media applications and trying new things with marketing. I’m not afraid to tinker and putz with new technology or even take some risks and see how certain marketing techniques work out.

Creating mashups of ideas and turning them into some lumbering social media monster is what I call entertainment. I get some great creations, and I get some disappointments that are usually a little too uncontrollable to remain viable. Of course with all my experimentation and laboratory play there’s a game plan. There’s always some kind of path to follow, like a blueprint.

My concern is with businesses who are finding their way into the lab and piecing together nightmares in their social media campaigns without any plan of action.

Having a goal in mind isn’t enough. Working with goals alone makes you miss the little issues that should be standing out like a gleaming red “Don’t Do That” beacon. Like stitching together a giant monster from the body parts of thieves, vagabonds and killers. I’ve seen and heard of some businesses that launch a social media game across a variety of networks (in some cases just one) that seemed as if they ran into the lab with their hair all over, in a wild frenzy and just threw the switch.

Through all the electrical chaos and sparks, and the maddening meltdown among people within their social network, they go from cackling over their perceived imminent success to sheer terror at the fact that… It’s alive and they can’t control it.

Sure social media is often gamed by us as we work on various means to manipulate it and market through it but as crazy, wild-eyed scientists we seem to forget that no matter what we’re doing we’re dealing with live samples here. Real people reacting to the very real things we’re doing. Those people are often intelligent enough to know when we take the time to carefully plan our strategies and launch a beautiful campaign that engages them and talks to them personally…

And when we freakishly throw together a hodgepodge mess that transforms into an ugly monster. Uncontrolled comments, poor representation of a company, poor content that provides no value, lumbering stupidity – eventually they’ll just come at you with torches and pitchforks and they’ll destroy the monster you’ve created.

They don’t want it to be part of the community.

With that in mind, businesses shouldn’t be afraid to experiment to see what works with their followers. While most people won’t put up with complete rubbish and poor quality anything within social media they may actually be quite accepting of a Frankenstein monster if you present it properly.

A top hat, coat tails, a nice cane.

A monster is still a monster without proper planning though, no matter how you dress it up. Avoid trying to peddle something ugly and terrifying within your own social media marketing. Implement careful planning and try to understand what people want from you. That way you can craft a more appropriate and… friendly monster in your experiments

One that doesn’t eat small children or scare away conversions.